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Why do so many aikidoka of the modern day go play with judoka, BJJ, and MMA players?

I think there are three reasons:
1. Judo, BJJ and MMA are all sports. Sports have rules. Aikido violates directly or indirectly most of the rules that most of these sports have and so Aikidoka "loose" against them.
For example, there is no way to beat a Judoka unless you're a better Judoka or you violate Judo rules, so in a Judo dojo you will always loose.
Most people seem get stuck on the fact that they lost and don't give much thought as to why they lost. They don't blame the other guy because he won, they don't blame themselves because that's too hard, they don't blame Judo or whatever because again they're the one that lost, so they come to the conclusion that Aikido is inferior. The common sence thing to do then is study the superior art.

2. Other arts provide a testing ground for what you've learned. You can go up against a fully resisting opponent without having to start a real fight.

3. A lot of Aikido people tend to be the kind of people that habitually do more than one art simply because they enjoy learning other arts.

Wow, that guy does a pretty good job of maintaining 'the cross'. I wonder if he studied with Ark?

Chris,
The really interesting thing about the video is the progression from kneeling, to half kneeling to standing.

I used to think that kneeling was all about "samurai self defense" or just ritualized silliness.

Now that I understand a little bit about ''connection" I can see that the kneeling position makes it easier to use connection, because you don't have to pay attention to the knees and ankles. Just the hips on up. Of course half kneeling is a little tougher, and then standing on your feet is tougher still.

If I think about suwariwaza as a training tool to get you using connection (the cross and so on) ASAP then I think it's fantastic. I'm doing a lot of it these days actually. I'm glad I learned the "shape" before, and now it's a matter of putting the right feeling into it.

Great stuff...thank you for posting! As I was watching, I was thinking about some of the really spectacular and accomplished practitioners out there, and that O Sensei would likely be so gratified to see where some people have taken this art. I don't imagine that he ever thought he was going to be "the very best who ever lived."

Some of the ukemi in this clip is really awesome. There was one breakfall in there from kotegashi I had to watch a couple of times.

Quote:

Edward Karaa wrote:

IMHO, this is the aikido we should take as a training model, not that of a 70+ years old.

I'm sure there's a fair number of Angier nutriders out there. But its for good reason if you got an eye for good posture etc. Especially considering the guy was in his thirties in this vid...

I talked to a japanese teacher a couple of months ago who saw this clip and said it was kind of disconcerting Angier moved better back then and even more correctly than 90% of the current so called traditional teachers of Jujutsu/Aiki/Kenjutsu what have you out here in modern day Japan.

Ueshiba was just a guy who trained hard and had more than half a brain on his shoulders
Nuff said.

I'm sure there's a fair number of Angier nutriders out there. But its for good reason if you got an eye for good posture etc. Especially considering the guy was in his thirties in this vid...

I talked to a japanese teacher a couple of months ago who saw this clip and said it was kind of disconcerting Angier moved better back then and even more correctly than 90% of the current so called traditional teachers of Jujutsu/Aiki/Kenjutsu what have you out here in modern day Japan.

Ueshiba was just a guy who trained hard and had more than half a brain on his shoulders
Nuff said.

I've trained with a lot of great folks over the years but none was better than Angier Sensei. I have grabbed him with all my power only to have him drop me on my butt and I never felt anything. He has the most effortless technique I have ever encountered. Truly amazing skills.